Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

I've got an M1 Air and it's awesome, it's incredibly powerful and surprisingly efficient on the battery life. I've also got a 2014 MacBook Air that I still use from time to time and it's still going strong (granted it could probably do with a battery replacement)!

While there's certainly a massive jump in performance with the Apple Silicon chips, for basic web browsing/word processing, an older one will still do fine IMO (though as always, it's probably worthwhile looking at when they will stop receiving OS/security updates).

If anything, the advent on Apple Silicon chips has probably absolutely crashed the Intel Mac market so you can probably find some perfectly useable machines that are 'technically worthless' at this point.

What's the current state of Bootcamp on Apple Silicon? I'm considering getting a Mac Mini (not sure if Pro or not) in the next year or so, currently have a bulky 2015 desktop PC that's very occasionally used for light gaming. Kerbal Space Program is likely the most taxing thing I'll be using. I know it's natively available on Mac, but that's just to give a rough idea. I'd like to have a single, small machine that fits all my needs. Or should I just buy a similarly sized Mini-PC for gaming use?

bootcamp doesn't exist on Apple Silicon. Completely different architecture so it's back to emulation

Or should I just buy a similarly sized Mini-PC for gaming use

Yes

Much appreciated!

to be slightly more encouraging - it does look like the m4 does a decent job at emulating. I've not tried it but there are various YouTube vids of people running Windows in Parallels/VMWare etc. and it's doing a decent job at gaming. I'm sure latest AAA titles will struggle, but things a few years old look like they're entirely playable

New M4 Mac mini set up. Realised the lack of a webcam will be slightly irritating but it runs so smoothly compared to the old 2015 MBP 15"that I'll take it...

Nice to have the power to game (Mon intensive stuff like Minecraft/wow) so that deciding not to is a choice, not enforced on me!

The 256gb is a bit of a killer so wont be long until a decent external drive comes

lack of a webcam

in case you didn't know - you can use your iPhone's camera as a webcam nowadays, including portrait mode (shallow depth of field) etc. - it's amazing

Good to know thanks.

Unfortunately I've got an s24. But given everything else I own is apple now I might finally consider switching.

I've always just said I use the one that's best for me (Mac>>>PC apart from gaming, and android>>iPhone), but now I hardly use the customisation of android and don't root etc. the benefits are diminishing

There's awesome android phones as well, yet another argument for getting an iPhone (if you already have a mac) is how well the syncing works (photos & music, but also email, notes, contacts etc. - I'm finding it really convenient, and there are only very few hiccups in my experience).

Yeah I was never worried about the convenience factor previously but I definitely am coming around now I have less time to tinker and more stuff syncing etc.

If I can find a decent trade offer / can switch without much cost I'll definitely consider it

Definitely try to get a cheaper second hand one, the hardware is overpowered and you get support for ages so even a couple of generations back is still fine.
Functionalty wise it's a massive step back, it reminds me of very basic chinese phones
a decade ago, obviously depends on what kind of Android you were using, I am not familiar with the Samsung version.

Functionalty wise it's a massive step back

..in what regards?

What iphone case are folks using if you’re not a fan of the silicon ones?

I would try it, I got Apple to change mine, it took 5 days and cost over a £100. I regretted that after watching a few tutorials. If careful, I see no reason why you couldn't just do it yourself.

Yeah, got a text message saying it's back online and I can track it with the short link, needless to say I didn't click on it.

Tempted to give them shit or pretend I'm really gullible, but the lock screen is a picture of my wife and son and it was robbed near my house so I think I'll have to let it go.

I keep harping on about the limited keyboard and the restrictions they put on third party ones. Then there are things like the inconsistent gestures, sometime back is a side swipe, sometimes it's down, sometimes it's a thing you have to press on screen.
You don't get a fine grained volume settings through the volume buttons.
You can't access app setting directly from the app or it's icon.
You can't change the default map app from apple map which is still broken.
A lot of functionality is just make believe, like the image recognition and translation. Like I posted a while ago where it can tell you what language it is but then can't translate it.
So you still end up with the Google version of a lot of things which makes the Apple apps bloat ware.
No notification or charging light!

Spigen has been my choice for a while.

They look good for £20, cheers.

Also using Spigen and it's great.

Fair enough, though personally I don't have any issues at all with the things you mentioned.

Never had an issue with the keyboard, frankly - works great for me (granted I really only use it to write very short texts / quick google searches etc.) - also more and more voice messages instead nowadays, and I guess this and voice-to-text / dictation will be the future anyways..

I see the inconsistency with swipe gestures, and also some navigation things sometimes being on the top, sometimes at the bottom.. it isn't perfect you're right, doesn't really bother me though.

Same with the fine grained volume - could be finer, yes, but in real life works just fine for me - also gotta say AirPod Pro 2's are the best thing since sliced bread, really, love them and how well they work.

Can't remember the last time I really wanted or needed to enter some "app settings" directly from the homescreen / icon, to be honest.

Apple maps works just great for me here in Berlin, for navigation (do not own a car, but suggested routes for walking and cycling are great usually, and it's also really well connected with Berlin's public transport service, so no complaints there.
When searching for some things like restaurants etc. I sometimes find that it isn't as complete as Google Maps, sadly - not a dealbreaker for me though.

Haven't looked into image recognition and translation much - actually just tried the latter with pieces of text from various websites - worked perfectly, to be honest (US English > German).

I get an audible (cat's meow sound) as well as visual feedback (dynamic island animation, later battery-with-lightning-bolt-icon top right) when plugging in to charge. Never missed an additional charging LED or whatever; I mean I just plug the thing in and it charges 🤷‍♂️

Probably I'm not really a "pro" user - but I guess very very few of iPhone users are, it's the old apple thing, isn't it - loose a bit of customizability to make it work really easy (and really well) for 99% of people..

Same with the fine grained volume - could be finer, yes, but in real life works just fine for me

I meant how the volume button only adjusts one thing, you can't expand the context and adjust
alarms, media, notifications etc.

worked perfectly, to be honest (US English > German).

I usually need the ones that I don't speak. Apple translate offers 21 languages, can't even do most European ones. Goggle has 243 according to their list, can't really count that many.

I meant how the volume button only adjusts one thing, you can't expand the context and adjust alarms, media, notifications etc.

I don't think I'm able to follow.
When I'm at the home screen then the volume buttons change the ringer volume, when there's music playing they adjust the music's volume, when I watch a video on VLC or something they adjust the video's volume, etc.
I think ringer volume and notifications volume and and alarm volume is always connected / the same - which is fine for me.

I see your issue with apple translate not offering a lot of languages; never looked into it as I don't need it frankly.

When I'm at the home screen then the volume buttons change the ringer volume, when there's music playing they adjust the music's volume, when I watch a video on VLC or something they adjust the video's volume, etc.

Exactly, you can't adjust it until you are in that context.

Ah ok, I see, thanks for elaborating.

I suppose for me adjusting it when I'm actually in the respective "context" works well enough 🙂

Looking for a replacement charger for a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015). The one I have is 60W Magsafe 2. Prices seem to range from £13 to £79!! What am I missing? Are third party ones shite? Is this an option; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154310869993?chn=ps&_ul=GB&google_free_listing_action=view_item

Anywhere else I should look?

Cheers